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How your marriage can affect your health

It might interest you to know that your health can be affected by your marriage. And I am not talking about just the headaches that can happen when you have a tiff with your SO. Your physical wellbeing, not just your mental, is also in question based on how happy your marriage is or isn’t. Married people fare better in terms of physical health, longevity, psychological health and happiness, than those who never married, who in turn do better than the divorced, separated and widowed, according to a study, ‘How Does Marriage Affect Physical and Psychological Health? A Survey of the Longitudinal Evidence’ by Chris M Wilson and Andrew J Oswald.

Here’s looking at how being married can affect your health.

Overall healthAccording to health statistician Charlotte Schoenborn, in her research paper ‘Marital Status and Health’, regardless of age, sex, education, income or any health indictors, married people were generally found to be healthier than those who are single, widowed, divorced, separated or living with a partner. It could be because one tends to take more care of self for your other half, and take care of each other too as you can hold each other accountable. And if you do fall ill, there is someone to take care of you before it turns too serious.

Less riskOne tends to think twice before doing something risky if you’re married and it can affect your SO and children, if any. Many times, even the bad habits like alcoholism, smoking or rash driving are abandoned for the family. Making risky choices in career too are done rarely as one has to think of the family first. According to Hanzhe Zhang’s research paper, ‘A Marriage-Market Perspective of Risk-Taking and Career Choices’, “unmarried men are more likely to choose risky careers than married men, and unmarried women are more likely to choose safe careers than married women.”

Longer life spanIf you’re happily married, you end up with better overall health, and end up opting for better lifestyle choices, making you live longer than if you were single, or unhappy in marriage. Wilson and Oswald in the above stated research paper state that ‘people who are divorced or separated or widowed are at a particularly high risk of dying prematurely. Those never married face somewhat lower risks of death in any given period, but the married have easily the lowest risk of all the groups.’

Less stressIf you are happy with your marriage, then you have less marital insecurities – relationship-wise and looks-wise. Basically, the cortisol level in a happily married woman is less than that of an unhappily married woman. This can be because the husband is helpful and understanding which are important in a happy marriage and this leads to lower stress. Even if the woman has stress at work, being happily married can help in rebounding back from high cortisol level once home, according to a study by UCLA.

Cardio healthCardiovascular health is also linked to stress. According to a research presented at ESC Congress last year, married patients were 14% more likely than single patients to survive after a heart attack. The study suggested that marriage is one way that the patients can receive support to successfully control their risk factors for heart disease, and ultimately survive with them.

Negative effects of an unhappy marriageIf you aren’t happy in your marriage, the stress levels are going to be high, leading to diminished immunity. If you’re not happy, you might also end up picking up bad habits like excessive smoking and drinking, drugs, etc. which in turn lead to bad health. Extreme problems might also lead to depression, suicide, etc.